STOP: 0x000000C4

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New Member

Hi,
I got this really lengthy BSOD error code. I've tried looking for my dump files with no success, which is why I've written the code below.
It all started when my computer randomly BSOD while I was playing a game. Before I got my BSOD I experienced some flickering lines which randomly showed up every 10sec - 5min.
After a restart, I experienced another BSOD while I was browsing the web. After constant restarts and BSODs (about 2) the problem seemed to ease off. However, I haven't tried playing a game yet.

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Fantastic Member

Please check in C:\Windows\Minidump - zip up and upload any memory dumps found there. If you're using a program to clean the hard drive (like CCleaner) - please stop while we're troubleshooting. Also, check the system to make sure that these settings are being used: Set MiniDump

Daemon Tools (and Alcohol % software) are known to cause BSOD's on some Windows systems (mostly due to the sptd.sys driver, although I have seen dtsoftbus01.sys blamed on several occasions).

Please un-install the program, then use the following free tool to ensure that the troublesome sptd.sys driver is removed from your system (pick the 32 or 64 bit system depending on your system's configuration): [DEL] DuplexSecure - FAQ [/DEL] Link broken as of 21 Jul 2012
New link (15 Aug 2012): DuplexSecure - Downloads (pick the appropriate version for your system and select "Un-install" when you run it).
Alternate link: Disc-Tools.com
Manual procedure here: Registry and SPTD problems | DAEMON Pro Help

The error that you've posted (0x000000C4) is a Driver Verifier enabled error. The purpose of Driver Verifier is to crash your system - please turn it off IMMEDIATELY! To do this, open up verifier.exe and select "Delete existing settings", then click on "Finish" and reboot for the changes to take effect.

One of the older memory dumps shows traces of HotSpotShield - if this is still installed, please remove it to see if that helps. It was known (a while back) to cause BSOD's on Windows systems.

New Member

Active Member

Understand that Driver Verifier is purposed with the intent of catching driver bugs and crashing the system as a result. While you may have resolved your current symptoms by turning off Driver Verifier, there is often a good reason why it's crashing the system, because it's alerting to something that if left unresolved will cause crashing or worse issues. There are cases where 0xC4 bugchecks can occur even without DV being enabled, because some DV checks are internally embedded in Windows 7. If you are not aware of ever turning on DV, then most likely this is what happened, and 'turning it off' won't resolve anything since it wasn't active to begin with.

Anyways, aside from only finding out a general idea what happened from the bugcheck code, there's no telling what caused it without access to crashdumps. However, I perused your syslog, and what concerns me is that while the sylog reported 3 BSODs, there is a ton of unexpected shutdowns reported. Are you manually restarting your system often? Usually when there's very few or no BSODs reported in the system event log, and there's plenty of unexpected shutdowns reported, that means there's some sort of power of temperature issue going on. Either the power supply is bad (most likely), or the CPU is reaching critical temperature and the mobo is shutting things down in an attempt to prevent a meltdown.

There is of course also the possibility the events are not being written to the log during a BSOD because there's a problem with the drive I/O that's preventing the event (and the crashdump) from being written to the drive. When you experience these crashes, do you actually see a BSOD code pop up every time, or does the system just restart? Try typing advanced system settings in Start Menu, then go to Startup & Recovery and uncheck Automatically restart, then restart the system. From now on any time it actually BSODs it should not restart the system but stay at the blue screen. If you still end up getting restarts, then I reckon it's most likely a power supply issue.

This is all I can do for now with the data we've got, outside what John already alerted too. We'll see if 'turning off' Driver Verifier actually manages to stabilize things or not before proceeding.

New Member

Now that you mention it, i don't recall turning driver verifier on.
The unexpected shut downs were when my system started crashing 10s into any graphic intense game. The screen would just freeze and I would need to manually restart it. I took it into the store and they said they couldn't reproduce the problems I was having. When I got my system back the crashing seemed to be gone. This happened twice and every time I bring it back from the store the crashing disappears for about a month and then it comes back.

For awhile I was thinking that it might be related to the amount of power being produced by my electrical outlet but other than that I am confused.

EDIT: I'll try see if I get a BSOD now. If I do I'll post the results.

Active Member

I always tell people, if you need something fixed real quick, have someone else take a look at it, and it'll start working!

I'm not sure what you mean by the comment on the amount of power from your outlet. There are those rare cases that either the power cord or the outlet itself has problems, but again, those are rare in comparison to the other issues, so I believe we should address those other issues first before considering these as possibilities.

New Member

I've been gaming for about 2hrs straight and no crash/BSOD. I'm not quite sure if doing the verifier.exe stuff actually did the trick, or maybe it suddenly fixed itself like it always does >.<
Anyway, what are these other issues you mentioned?

Active Member

That being your motherboard or your PSU messing up. Though if the unexpected shutdowns are caused by hangs that you are manually resetting on, I can understand that. While the PSU is no longer implicated, it doesn't mean it gets off scot free. Still, we will redirect to something else for now.

We'll see how things go. Return to us if things go awry. Though if you want, you always can turn on Driver Verifier and see if you can get it to crash and send us crashdumps. While DV may not be pointing to an actual cause for your symptoms, it is good to use to weed out any potential buggy drivers that will eventually cause a mess, be it now or in the future.

New Member

I've started getting BSODs again while watching videos, but this time it's automatically restarting on the BSOD. I've checked systempropertiesadvanced.exe to make sure that "Automatically restart" is unchecked, which it is. So I'm not quite sure why it's restarting. I've also checked the minidump folder in C:\Windows and couldn't find any recent minidumps.

Active Member

That's because your system is spontaneously restarting, again either because of a power supply issue or because of a temperature problem. There are also more rare cases like a short circuit or the GPU causing it. I recommend approaching it by taking care of the more common suspects, that being the temperature or PSU. Run Hwinfo on Sensors only then play a video or a game (or run Prime95 on Torture Test on Blend settings) and then watch the CPU/GPU temps. if the CPU especially rises above 60 and continues to rise without any signs of plateauing, then you have a temperature issue and you need to clean the inside of your system and perhaps even reinstall the CPU cooler properly. If temps look fine, then I'd look at replacing your power supply. Here is a good article covering what to look for in a PSU and some recommendations. Basically, avoid budget PSUs of any brand, and approach only more respectable brands.

New Member

I decided to clean my computer today and found that the monitor adapter was loose and I've started using a different electrical outlet. Not sure if these were the causes of my crashes but it sure may have been. Since I've moved my computer it has run perfectly for the past 5hrs.
Thing I'm confused about is the monitor adapter. I would've thought that if it is loose, my computer monitor would just turn off, instead of my computer crashing.

Fantastic Member

Active Member

I'm curious, what type of cable were you using to connect to your monitor? HDMI? DVI? Analog? I have seen connection BSODS before on certain cards when dealing with digital connectors, especially HDMI. I also don't understand why this would be the case, but it's not impossible.

New Member

I'm connected using DVI cable. Thing is, the first time i took it into my computer shop they gave me a new DVI cable which seemed to fix the problem of freezing when I played games.
Do you think it could've been the amount of voltage being supplied from the other power outlet which was causing the BSODs? 'cause that's the only other thing I changed.

Active Member

New Member

It worked good for about 3 days after moving my computer around but now I'm starting to get the same problems again. BSODs and all. What do you think moving my computer around changes that allows it to work for a couple of days? 'cause I'm really baffled now.
Think it could be a monitor problem?

EDIT: I think I found a minidump from 16/03/2013

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Active Member

It may have been coincidental. The latest crash shows up as your video driver/card hanging and Windows was unsuccessful at resuscitating it. I noticed your video drivers are dated Dec 29, 2012. There's been a number of bugs that have been prominently displayed in Nvidia graphics drivers dating between Nov-Jan. A lot of people are reporting that newer driver updates have resolved their issues. While yours is not exactly identical to what they've been dealing with, it may be related. Update your graphics drivers completely (uninstall/reinstall) and see how that goes for ya.

Also, I noticed you have the Nvidia HDMI Audio device driver installed, but you are using DVI. This may have something to do with it. I am not sure if it was installed with nForce chipset package or with your graphics drivers, but you may wanna have it removed also (may show up in Programs & Features). The driver file itself is nvhda64v and is dated April 18, 2012, so at the very least have it updated if not uninstalled completely.

Fantastic Member

New Member

I sincerely apologise for the extremely late reply but I have been quite busy with uni work. Now that I'm approaching mid-semester break I'm determined to fix this problem.
I've noticed a number of things over my absence on this forum.

First off I was using my computer and I decided to remove my headset wires (plugged into the back of my comp) and plug in my speakers. While doing this I accidentally nipped my DVI cable which is plugged into the back of my computer. This caused my computer to black screen (and maybe crash - can't remember if it recovered from the back screen or not.) However, I wasn't sure if this was the cause of the black screen but it seemed like too much of a coincidence.. plus I believe it has happened before, maybe a year or so ago.

Secondly, I've noticed that when computer is in the middle of freezing/black screen/BSOD, I looked inside my case and noticed that
my GPU fan was running on max speed (looked and sounded like max speed) and my CPU fan was barely spinning. Not sure if this is normal or not, but just thought I'd mention it.

Finally, in a previous post you said that my GPU drivers were outdated (Dec 29, 2012) but I do remember reinstalling graphics drivers earlier this year. I checked Program and Features in control panel and my NVIDIA Graphics Driver 310.90 was installed on 21/01/2013. So I'm not quite sure what happened there.

Again, I do strongly apologise for this late reply and hope you haven't forgotten this case!